A Study Of The Percentage Of Follicular Helper T Cells In Peripheral Blood And IL-21 And IL-17 In Serum Of Patient With SLE

Objective:Detection of SLE patients with the percentages of Tfh cells in peripheral blood and levels of IL-21 and IL-17 in serum were operated to investigate the relationship between the Tfh cells and SLE.Method:Venous blood was collected from 45 patients(including 25 patients with active period,20 patients with non activity) as well as 30 healthy human controls. Flow cytometry to detect the percentage of Tfh in peripheral blood mononuclear cells(PBMCs)and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA)was performed to measure the levels of serum IL-21 and IL-17.The correlations between the percentage of Tfh cells of SLE patients and SLE disease activity index(SLEDAI), anti-nuclear antibody(ANA)titers and the levels of complement 3(C3),complement 4(C4) were analyzed.Results:The percentage of Tfh cells in the peripheral blood of active SLE patients (9.11 %±1.02%) was higher than that of non-active patients (4.51%±0.59%)and healthy human controls(1.99%±0.08%) (P<0.01), there was also statistical significance between non active patients and healthy human controls(P <0.05).The serum level of IL-21 was significantly higher in active SLE patients than in non active patients and healthy human controls(368.21±171.56pg/ml)vs(302.72±96.89pg/ml)vs(230.65±110.17pg/ml)(P< 0.05), the statistical significance also exist between non-active patients and healthy human controls(P<0.05).Likewise, the serum level of IL-17 was meaningfully higher in active SLE patients than the IL-17’s level in non-active patients and healthy human controls(87.59±23.54pg/ml)vs(70.53±16.32 pg/ml)vs(53.66±8.52 pg/ml) (P<0.01), there difference between non-active patients and healthy human controls was significant as well(P<0.05).The percentage of Tfh cells of SLE patients was obviously related with SLEDAI(r=0.69, P<0.01)and C3 levels(r=-0.87, P<0.01), but there was no correlation between them and the ANA titer, C4 levels(r=-0.17, r =-0.26, P>0.05).Conclusion:There is a significant increase of the percentage of Tfh and the serum level of IL-21 and IL-17 in SLE patients,hinting a certain role of Tfh and IL-21 and IL-17 in the pathogenesis of SLE.